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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26985463">A Mother's Lullaby</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grumpy_Bubble_Tea/pseuds/Grumpy_Bubble_Tea'>Grumpy_Bubble_Tea</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hades (Video Game 2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:47:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,672</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26985463</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grumpy_Bubble_Tea/pseuds/Grumpy_Bubble_Tea</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a new mother to twins could already be an exhausting experience, even for a goddess, but Nyx has always done her best to provide for her little bundles of joy. </p><p>One day, she has to remember an old tactic to deal with new problems.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>54</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Mother's Lullaby</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gentle shushing and humming flow in a low, rich voice in attempts to calm the wailing infants laying in her arms. Bouncing and rocking them ever so carefully, Nyx looked down at the two boys she loved dearly, sorrow in her gaze, along with drowsiness written in the way her eyelids drooped and how her voice would sometimes sleepily trail off. She'd tried everything; Kisses to their soft little cheeks and grey foreheads, comforting words in a quiet, low tone, nursing them in hopes that some warm milk would soothe them enough for them to sleep... It felt like nothing was working. Their wails went on endlessly, growing louder, and she could imagine their little throats in discomfort with sore pains now from how long their sobs had roared on. Thanatos had always been a fairly fussy child to deal with, admittedly, but Hypnos? </p><p>More often than not, he was asleep too much to ever grow fussy about anything. </p><p>His eyes were squeezed shut as he wailed into the air, little tears streaming down his face like waterfalls from those tired eyes of his. Usually, he was silent, as calm as can be. His chest would slowly, subtly rise and fall with each breath he took, going in a relaxing rhythm. Sometimes, he'd smile in his sleep. Other times, he'd wake up briefly and give her a happy squeal or coo of a greeting when he opened his eyes, pleased to see her. He was a little young to reach for her, and certainly too young to call her by name (as much as she'd love that), but when his lips curled into that sweet smile of his, she knew he recognized her and he was delighted to be with her. At times like that, Nyx's heart fluttered, and all in the world was alright. How couldn't it be? One of the little ones she worked to protect was safe and happy. Nothing else was more important. </p><p>Thanatos, on the other hand, was a complete opposite. It was like comparing a cat to a dog; Upwards and downwards; A dream and a nightmare. That wasn't to say that Thanatos was an absolute nightmare, no, but he was such a stark opposite from Hypnos in behavior that you'd hardly believe they were brothers. You'd never guess in a million years that they were twins, but Nyx would assure you, the two were born of the Night Incarnate herself, and thus both were equally deserving of all her love.</p><p>Thanatos was a little more prone to throwing tantrums and growing fussy quickly, and when he grew hungry, she'd learned to respond to his wails and demands quickly, lest she risk angering him further. He was one prone to crying loudest, turning pink in the face when he grew furious, and she could count on him waking up at least 3-4 times throughout the night to go off like a siren from an ambulance until he was sated with milk or gentle rocking. That being said, while he was certainly the fussiest of the two boys, he still had his peaceful moments. On occasion, he'd offer her a small, almost unnoticeable smile, usually after he'd tired himself out from sobbing and had nothing more to be upset about now that he'd garnered her attention. He didn't coo as often as Hypnos did, but that was what made his occasional sounds that much more rewarding--They were rare, but when you'd earned yourself a sign of happiness from him, you'd truly earned it. </p><p>Of course, nothing made Nyx happier than seeing her boys happy. And with that being said, nothing ailed her more than seeing them so upset beyond the point of comfort, as they were on this night. </p><p>She kept them cradled, one infant in each arm, gently bouncing them in her embrace and planting occasional kisses upon their little faces from those grape-colored lips of hers. They only grew fussier when her lips met the gray skin of their temples and cheeks, even daring to growl or give a yell of a coo in her direction. Nyx frowned deeper, eyebrows furrowed as she grew more troubled. She was running out of ideas quickly. She'd already been standing in the bedroom chamber, walking around with them, hoping the movement would relax them as she moved across the softness of the purple carpet beneath her feet. They'd also been refusing every attempt to nurse them, and providing them with pacifiers to suckle on seemed to do nothing to calm them either. They wailed, yelled, sobbed--She could swear they could be heard from Olympus. Nyx's mind swam with dismay and worry. She squeezed her eyes briefly, her eyebrows furrowing further, scanning through her mind for any memory of a similar moment, where she'd been able to soothe them. </p><p>And then, it struck her.</p><hr/><p>Zagreus was not her biological son. He'd been brought to life through the love of Lord Hades Himself and his lover--Ex-lover, Persephone. She was the queen of the Underworld for the time she'd been here, and just as quickly as she'd came, she'd vanished with the wind at the stillbirth of her son. To have spent months growing a bundle of joy, living off the high of the excitement of expanding the family and of having a little one with a man she loved so dearly, only to be met with a still heart and chest devoid of air left her in dismay to say the least. Her heart had been punctured, made to bleed out on the floor, and her mind and body fled to keep from having to live with such a void in her chest. </p><p>Yet she did not know that in another pool of blood, one she'd seen so many times before, of a daunting crimson with a slight, muddied reflection if she stared into it hard enough with just enough light hitting it, her son floated about just fine. Nyx had been the one to fish him free from the grasps of the ever-churning liquid and swaddle him into a blanket of the same such color, but his life returning did not guarantee Persephone's. The underworld would not have its queen. </p><p>Just as it would not have a happy king, bearing flooding hatred and disdain in his heart for the loss of his wife. </p><p>Just as it would not have any true light, hidden forevermore away from the sun, only for the dead to come and live despite their deaths. </p><p>It was a cold and unforgiving land, and Persephone's mournful departure left Hades a cold and unforgiving man, leaving Zagreus primarily in Nyx's care. Just a few weeks after she'd given birth to her sons, the Gods of sleep and death, Zagreus would come into the world and just as easily be taken under her wings. She had never once given him his life. She was not his mother by any traditional means. But it is with that being said that it must be noted; Nyx loved Zagreus enough to make up for it all--For his physically lost mother, for his emotionally lost father--She would care for him as if he had been in her womb all this time too. Sometimes, she joked, that perhaps she was meant to have triplets and Zagreus was the one to complete the set of 3. Of course, this was always a jest she kept to herself. She couldn't tell you exactly how Hades would react to such a comment, but she knew it'd be far from a pleasant reaction, and she was never one to tell jokes anyways.  </p><p>On her way to see her boys and provide some light to them in such a cold, dark place, Nyx strolled down the corridor of the House. Her flowing black hair swayed with each rhythmic movement, mesmerizing some shades watching her pass. She was never one to be so rude as to ignore them; It didn't hurt to give them little nods of acknowledgment or small waves, sometimes, perhaps, accompanied with the slightest of smiles. Hades would scoff at such behavior, eyeing her nastily for addressing them in such a manner, but she cared not for his temper. She didn't even glance in his direction as she came to pass Cerberus, stopping briefly to run her gray hands ever-so-gently through the silky red fur coating the three-headed dog. She always went for the head on the far right. She'd learned rather quickly after her first attempt to pet him some time ago that it was the only head he enjoyed being pet on. She'd even mutter something about him being her, "Good boy," but never loud enough for Hades to hear. She still had to say it, though. She had to assure Cerberus he was loved. </p><p>He was made to be a ferocious beast to others but was nothing more than the sweetest of puppies to her. </p><p>When she finally felt she'd spent enough time tending to him, she'd resume down the hall. Her feet hovered over the floor as she floated forward, her toes not even daring to so much as brush against the hard floor beneath her. When her path takes her to where Achillies usually stood in the hall, his spear upright in his hand, his gaze usually idly looking to and fro only to find the man nowhere in sight, Nyx sighs with a small shrug, figuring he was off doing something or other that Hades had assigned to him. Regardless, it did not change her ultimate destination; The nursery the youngest members of the House resided in. She was able to convince Hades to allow Zagreus to stay with her own two boys, at least just for his infant years, and only under the condition of frequent visits from the King of the Underworld, which she was more than fine with as long as she was around when he came by. </p><p>Admittedly, Nyx always feared Hades' pained, troubled attitude seeping into his words and behavior towards the little one. She knew Hades loved Zagreus so, and would do just about anything for him as much as he tried to cover it up, but she was well aware that the loss of Persephone changed him in many ways. Far more ways than she could anticipate, including occasional slips of the tongue from him with disrespectful, harsh words he usually never explicitly apologized for, but still felt guilty for saying. The last time he'd snapped at her without meaning to, he went days without properly looking her in the eye. She knew he regretted what he'd said and how he'd spoken to her, but the words, "I'm sorry," were about as easy for him to say as it was to force a boulder up a mountain; His words were too heavy to be pulled from his throat. But nonetheless, Nyx understood this and accepted his remorse as enough of an apology. In all truth, no matter how he treated her, she would always be more than happy to take Zagreus under her wing. Her love for him would not be swayed by a single force in the universe, the same going for her love for her own boys. </p><p>With the three little ones on her mind as she reached the door to the nursery, a smile growing across her face at just the thought of them, Nyx twisted the golden knob and pushed the door open. The teal-colored shades who'd been left in charge of watching the three infants turned expectantly towards her, and with a gentle nod of the head, both of them were dismissed, walking around her quickly and out the door. It gave a pained creaked as it was pulled shut by one of them, and a gentle click rang through the air as the door shut fully, though not a single other sound was made as Nyx floated above the crimson carpeted floor towards the 3 cribs. Each sat at the same height as the others, all three infants' beds made of a sturdy wood in a pinecone shade of brown. Each crib had a white mattress within, with a touch so soft anyone could be lulled to sleep within seconds of sinking into its caring embrace, hugged by its delicate mold against the body. Each boy was laid on his back, swaddled by a blanket that held them in a burrito; Hypnos' was a red blanket with a quill pattern, Thanatos' one of the same pattern but a gray color, and Zagreus had a hand-knit blanket in bright blue; A color more commonly found on the surface, which would make sense, considering it'd been stitched by a woman from that lively land. </p><p>It was one of Persephone's gifts for Zagreus, that she'd made in the time she was waiting for him to arrive. </p><p>Now that he was here, Nyx made it her job to care for him as well as Persephone would have, which led to her being here now. Her gaze floated to each infant, one at a time, silent in observation as she looked them over. Hypnos was, as expected, asleep. A little bit of drool streamed down the right side of his mouth, which remained agape as he slept on his back, bearing his gums to the world. This elicited a quiet chuckle from Nyx, who quickly stifled it down to avoid disrupting his clearly peaceful slumber. </p><p>Next, the goddess of the Night looked to her second son. Thanatos was also snoring away peacefully, his snow-colored hair matted against the mattress as he rested. Nyx approached, floating in and extending a hand forward to caress his cheek. She ran the face of her thumb across the smooth surface of his skin and smiled lovingly, her heart soothed by how sweetly he slumbered and snored. She then used her fingers to gently brush away strands of his hair from his face, and before removing her hand entirely, she pressed a kiss to his temple. </p><p>Finally, her eyes fell onto Zagreus. </p><p>And much to her surprise, his eyes fell onto her in return. One green and one red, both trembling as they bubbled with shiny beads of tears and a frowned forced itself onto the ends of his lips. Within what felt like milliseconds to Nyx, Zagreus huffed, puffed, shook, and burst into waterworks and wails. It was as though he'd been holding in a cry all this time, and was merely waiting for her to take notice. Her heart shattered as she became witness to his inexplicble pain and discomfort, shown through the sobs making his chest fall up and down in odd patterns with each hitched breath. Nyx took him into her embrace and held him close to her chest, beginning to rock him back and forth. </p><p>"Oh, my child... Whatever ails you so?" She knew he couldn't answer, but she hoped her words might provide some comfort for him. As his crying persisted, he grew red in the face with anger at her failing to soothe him sooner. Nyx sighed heavily, using a finger to gently wipe away some of the tears that rained down his cheeks and soaked into his shirt like it was dirt below pouring clouds. </p><p>"Zagreus..." Her eyes darted towards the resting twins, a ping of fear in her chest striking as she realized if he didn't quite down soon, the other 2 infants would soon join him in a chorus of cries.  Thanatos stirred at the noise, his brows furrowing with annoyance as he was disturbed, and Hypnos' breaths began to shift as though he were about to wake. Nyx feared she was soon running out of time, as if a bomb were moments away from going off and her timer was getting lower and lower by the second, nearing detonation. She could almost feel a sweat break from her forehead and roll down her own face as she looked between each boy.</p><p>And finally, the idea struck her. Like a sudden light bulb bringing the life of light into the dark. </p><p>She opened her lips once more, but rather than speaking, she began to sing. </p><p>A gentle, rich melody poured from her lips carefully, delicately, like wine slipping from the bottle to the glass. She did her best to carry her melodic tune with stability, and continued rocking Zagreus as she sang. Her eyes shut so she could focus fully on her song, and as if like magic, Zagreus' wails quieted down and went silent. It was like someone had merely pointed a remote at the child and turned his volume down like a television. His eyes watched her, blinking once, then twice, then thrice with astonishment, and his breaths settled fully to become stable and calm once more. Nyx's voice flowed in one of his little ears and calmed his mind, and she could swear she almost heard him sigh as tension visibly dispersed from his body, his muscles all relaxing. His shoulders relaxed and his head settled fully against her breast. Within a couple of minutes, he'd begun to drift off to sleep, his eyes struggling to stay open.</p><p>With each blink, his lids grew heavier, and he found it difficult to open them once more. It took some time, and Nyx did have to re-sing this same tune once or twice, but he finally joined the twins in a harmonious dormancy. The moment she realized he'd dozed off, she pressed her lips to his forehead, and laid him on his back in his crib. </p><p>One of her hands came to rest on the rim of the crib's bars, her eyes watching him for a moment longer as she lingered. The air around her went still, a silent tension arising in the atmosphere.</p><p>That song...</p><p>It brought up an inquiry she didn't quite want to leave unanswered. </p><p> Did this melody work because he merely wanted a song to hear?</p><p>Or did he recognize it?</p><hr/><p>She took a deep breath to steady herself and keep her composure despite the two twin stressors in her arms, sobbing into the air so loudly she feared it could be heard through the entire House. Nyx squeezed her eyes shut, wracking her brains for the words to the lyrical art she swore she'd heard a hundred times before, but her drowsiness clouded her mind from seeing the words as clearly as she always had. She swore she could recite the song as though it's words were written on parchment in ink just before her, like she was reading right from the original writing of the lullaby. When she finally felt the words were coming to her, now that she'd calmed herself enough to keep the infants from pulling away that usually level-headed air she had, she took a final deep inhale. </p><p>And then she exhaled, feeling the worry in her chest dissipate and the chaos in her mind settle. </p><p>And then she inhaled once more. </p><p>Her grape-colored lips parted to make way for soothing, loving words spoken in a gentle tune, each sentence started with the peak in harmony like a struck of a harp, and punctuated with the richer finish of the pluck of a cello. The words came one after another, her voice cracking every now and again (and could you blame her for it? She was never one much for singing...). Despite the occasional falters,  she never once ceased her singing, praying it would soon guide the two boys to sleep. </p><p>To help them relax further, she came to rest in her chair, sitting upon a red cushion with a gold-colored set under it. Nyx reclined against the back and allowed her head to lean back too, resting against the dark walls. Her hair almost fit in perfectly with the dark background, melting well against the soothing, muted black the room was painted. Her hair spilled over her shoulders and back like ambrosia laid to spill from the opening of a bottle and across a wooden table, down the edges of the cloth and onto the floor. </p><p>She dared not to cease her song until both boys had gone back to bed, the first being Hypnos (unsurprisingly) and the second being the fussier of the two, Thanatos.</p><p>And she could swear she saw him lock eyes with her and faintly smile, content with her song, content with her comfort, and above all,</p><p>Content with her love. </p><p>She sleepily smiled back, kissing the very tip of his nose before he dozed off. She did the same to Hypnos, hoping her love could be felt, even when his mind was residing in a land of dreams far away from her. With their minds traveling to depths she knew not of, she kept them close, keeping the boys in her loving embrace for a few moments longer. With their crying having settled down though, she was able to think back on what that day with Zagreus had made her question. </p><p>"... Persephone's song..." </p><p>The song she'd sung was written by Hades' lost lover; Zagreus' missing mother; Persephone. She'd started writing it when she first learned she was pregnant with the boy whose feet burned, yet whose blood ran crimson. "Redblood," she'd heard him called once. But her favorite title for him was, "Child."</p><p>"My child." </p><p>An affectionate term she'd listened to Persephone used time and time again. And she'd done the same with the song, having heard it throughout Persephone's pregnancy as she wrote it, finalized it, and sang it to herself. She had the parchment of the lyrics on her at all times, ready to be shown if asked for. She'd gone over the words so many times, Nyx had caught her subconsciously humming the tune under her breath throughout the day. Some days, Hades would ask her if she wanted the Court Musician to perform it for them since she seemed so infatuated with the tune.</p><p>She always declined. It would always be <em>her</em> special song to sing. </p><p>The Queen of the Underworld's Lullaby. </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This was my first Hades work ever! I chose to keep it short and sweet because of school, and other writing projects (and I'm fighting off a nasty cold right now...), but I would love to do more work in the future. Especially with younger Thanatos, Hypnos, and Zagreus, with Mother Nyx. </p><p>Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed it!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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